Improvement in the construction of tobacco-presses



ELLIOTT RICHARDSON, OF VEST RIVER, MARYLANI).

llVlPHUifEli/EIENT EN THE CONSTRUCTBON OF TOBACCO-PRSSES.

Specih'caton forming part ol'Lettcrs Patent No. L1'. llf'fib, dated July lli, 15:11.

ro all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that l', ELLIOTT RICHARDSON, of XVest River, in the county of Anne Arundel in the State' of Maryland, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Presses for Pressing or Prizing Tobacco into IIogsheads; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof.

Figure l in the accompanying drawings represents my press in perspective. c a a is the. frame, in which there is not anything peculiar. b and c are two hogsheads, or rather a true and aialse hogshead, placed one above the other, and standing on the base a of the irame. c is the hogshead into which the tobacco is to be pressed, and which must have its upper head removed for that purpose. b is a i'alse hogshead or packing-cylinder,which is open at both ends, and which lits onto the true hogshead c. The false hogshcad b is ,made to open in such ina-nner as 'that it can be removed from oii" the hogshead c while the pressing-serew is within it. For this purpose it may be made to spring open, so as to pass the screw and be united by clasps or otherwise, as is done in Naudestys tobaccopress, and in some others. The hogsheads are placed between the cheeks or side timbers oi' the press, and may be checked or wedged there to sustain and keep them upright, and they are in like manner sustained at front and back of the press by means of two vertical studs, 'lu' ls, the ends oi which pass into mortises in the pieces ZZ, attached to the frame oi' the press, and may be pinned or wedged up against the hogsheads.

The pressing-screw m, Figs. l and 2, has a follower at its lower end. This may be made either of wood or oi" iron, and must be nearly of the diameter ci' the interior of the hogshead, and thus keep the screw and the tobacco in -proper position.

In this press the screw is not to be turned round in the operation oi" pressing, the nut being made to revolve, and for this purpose it is placed within a metallic box made in the following manner: This metallic box is seen at j' in Fig. l, but is drawn on an enlarged scale in Fig. 4, and in an inverted position. Fig. 3 is the nut which is to be received within it. The neck g of the nut fits into the collar g of the box, and the flange h of the nut is received within the cavity 7L of the box j. The hexagonal or square part d d'of the nut rises above the upper surface of the box j" and receives the levers c e, Fig. l, by which the horses are to draw.

Fig. 5 shows the head-block or upper timbers of the press, and into this is let an iron plate, n, upon which the lower side of the nut is to rest.- The nut being put into the boxf, said box is to be placed upon the headblock, and is to be securely bolted down to it by screw-bolts passing through the holes o o and through the head-block, in addition to which, if iound necessary, straps of iron may be passed around the box and the head block. By using this device the levers by which the horses draw remain always at the same elevation, and the holes through the head-blockfor the passage of the screw need be no larger than the screw itself, whereas in the ordinary mode of letting in the nut it has to be four times that size, which so i'ar weakens a wooden head-block as to render the using ol"` one of iron necessary.

The lower part oi the press may be sunk in the ground to the depth, or nearly so, of the truc hogshead, which will bring the levers into a proper position for the horses and render the packing ot' the tobacco perfectly convenient. XVhen the, pressing has been so i'ar completed as to render it neccessary to raise the screw, this need not be done by turning the levers e e back, but the false hogshead being removed and the screw eased oft', it may be run up rapidly by turning tle follower by hand.

Having thus fully described the manner in which I construct and combine the respective parts oli' my press, I do not claim as my invention the actuating of the screw by the revolving oi' the nut, but

I do claiml. The manner of forming and combining the nut and metallic box, as set forth, in conjunction with the combining them with the head-block, by means of which arrangement the press can be conveniently worked by horse-power,while the head-block of wood is'left of such strength as to render it perfectly ecient.

2. 'In .combination with the foregoing an drawings' as laiding in preserving the Vertical rangement, the employment of the studs 7c k, position of the screw, but in practice lhese afxed in the manner described, 'for the purhave not been found necessary or useful. pose of steadying and keeping the hogsheads ELLIOTT RICHARDSON. and the pressing-screw in ai Vertical position. i Vitnesses:

A fra-me, j j, and a vertical rod, i, rising THos. P. JoNEs,

from the pressing-screw, are represented inthe l GEORGE VEsT. 

